If You Touch Him Again
by RayneSummer
Summary: Tag to 5.18 - "Sam Winchester was not a force to be reckoned with" When Castiel brings Dean back bloody and unconscious, he wasn't going to get away with it, no matter who he was or why he did it.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't have much inspiration at the moment, which is why I haven't been writing, so sorry about that! I've been doing my Supernatural Season rewatches (in which I don't go to bed till like 4am) recently and I was watching Season 5 last night and on the topic of Protective!Sam, I decided that Sam really wasn't happy with Cas when he brought Dean back beat up, whatever the reason... so let's try for a easy missing scene to give me writing motivation! Please review, it really encourages me (and I hope to update Hannah soon btw). Enjoy!**

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"Bobby... what do you mean, Adam's gone?"

Sam tried to keep his voice level and reasonable as he paced, but he was pretty pissed. Cas was banished, Dean had run away, and now Adam had disappeared. Admittedly, it wasn't looking good for them to come up with some plan that was meant to involve said missing people.

"Should I say it in Spanish?" Bobby replied sarcastically, feeling that he couldn't really be yelled at for someone disappearing in front of him.

Unamused, Sam half-glared at him, pausing in his pacing. "Gone how?" He ran a hand frustratedly through his hair. "What the hell, Bobby?!"

"Watch your tone, boy!" Bobby warned; Sam sighed minutely and looked away for a minute, knowing that he did need to calm himself slightly. "He was right in front of me, and he vanished into thin air."

Sam frowned at the description, but didn't have time to dwell on it, because suddenly the papers on the table blew around, signifying the arrival of an angel. Sam and Bobby automatically turned to look, and the younger hunter had to admit that he didn't like the sight that greeted him.

"Because the angels took him," Cas said, staring intently at them. However, Sam was more bothered about what had happened to his brother. Dean was being held up by Cas and it looked as though he had been pretty beaten.

"What the hell happened to him?" Sam asked warily, taking a step towards them, kind of unsure whether to look after Dean or threaten Cas first. Because no matter what Dean had done - although it was pretty clear it had gotten Cas very pissed - it was unacceptable to hurt Sam's brother. And Castiel would clearly have to be soon reminded that that rule applied to him too.

Cas stood there for a moment longer, perhaps feeling the tension in the room escalate. "Me," he eventually replied, and turned around, dragging Dean over to the side window bed and dropping him on it, before turning back to the other two hunters again.

Sam glanced at Dean then narrowed his eyes at the angel, disrupted in his non-verbal warning by Bobby saying, "what do you mean the angels found him? You branded his ribs, didn't you?"

"Yes. Adam must have tipped them," Cas confirmed.

"How?"

"I don't know. Maybe in a dream."

"Well, where would they have taken him?" Sam interrupted, having an idea about that too.

Cas frowned in thought for a moment, then sighed, realising. "The Beautiful Room," he stated, as if that explained everything.

Sam and Bobby exchanged glances and a shrug, and looked back at Cas.

"What's that? An angel panic room or something?" Bobby guessed.

Cas considered, and nodded. "Well, yes. It's a room that only the angels can access. No one can escape from it," he added helpfully. "Zachariah put Dean in there to stop him from stopping Sam from freeing Lucifer, and I took him out of it in the end," he explained.

Glancing over at said hunter, who was deeply unconscious and looking pretty much worse for wear, Cas sighed and looked down, at least having the grace to look slightly regretful about his anger under Sam's gaze.

"I have to admit I lost my temper with Dean," the angel admitted, again glancing at the beat up hunter. "He was summoning Michael when I found him, though that was the reason I did."

"Yes, and what exactly did you do then?" Sam asked, his voice suddenly cold. Cas looked up, slightly confused, in time to see Bobby wince and look away, knowing what was coming. Sam was glaring at him now, hostile and protective, and Cas realised his mistake.

He was an angel, despite somewhat fallen, and he could kill anything. Supernatural monsters were afraid of him, and angels have no need of fear of others. But with Sam Winchester, the boy with the demon blood, fallen from grace and had unintentionally started the apocalypse, hell bent on killing Lucifer without losing his family; with this man looking at him with such contained anger, Castiel, Angel of the Lord, suddenly realised he was afraid.

"Well..." Cas said slowly, wondering how best to explain exactly what had driven him to beating Dean to almost unconsciousness. He knew now nothing he could say would be adequate; nothing he could say would be acceptable.

Nevertheless, he settled for the brief truth. "My anger got the better of me, seeing Dean just give up, after everything. I stopped the prayer, and dragged him into a nearby alley and, unfortunately, beat him. When he was on the ground, he then told me to 'just do it'; referring to killing him. However, although I of course possess the power and anger to do so, it was what I had come to stop him doing. Instead, I touched his shoulder and knocked him unconscious for a few hours."

Cas expected shouting and perhaps violence - like the kind anyone got if they screwed with Sam on Dean's watch - but Sam just sighed and glanced away. "Great," he muttered, throwing up his hands.

Bobby glanced at Dean, then at Sam. "Need anything else other than warm water and a towel?" he asked, knowing that even though Sam hadn't checked Dean over yet, he would still know what he needed to look after him and clean him up.

Sam swept a critical gaze over Dean, then glanced at Bobby. "No, that should be fine," he replied. Bobby nodded cautiously, knowing what was going to happen when he left the room. Wincing at the thought, he glanced briefly at Castiel, in case he never saw him again after this, and rolled his chair to the kitchen.

And Sam turned to Cas.

As he took a step forward, the angel almost took an involuntary step backwards in response, but reminded himself that technically Sam couldn't do anything to him, and stood his ground.

Sam sighed, as if he didn't really want to do this, but it was mandatory. Which it was, of course.

"Look, Cas, I know why you did it, trust me, I'm angry at Dean too, but..." He took another step and suddenly he was in front of the angel, towering over him and making Castiel feel very small. While he was still more powerful than this human, Cas knew that he had hurt Dean and that was not acceptable. And now he must endured the wrath as punishment.

Sam raised his voice slightly, to a very dangerous quiet tone. "If you _ever _touch my brother like that again - I. Will. Hunt. You. Down." He took hold of Castiel's trenchcoat and stared at the angel's eyes with a fire in his own. "Understand?"

Speechless, Cas just nodded. Sam Winchester was not a force to be reckoned with. At the moment, the angel kind of needed to be alive, and answering back right then may of changed that prospect.

Sam stood there for a second more, and then abruptly stepped back, and immediately turned to Dean, the angel dismissed.

Stunned, Cas stood there for a minute, watching Sam kneel down beside his brother and carefully, with practiced hands, check Dean over; gently skimming over his body, feeling for breaks, briefly checking for fever on his forehead, thumbing the cuts on his face to make sure they weren't too deep.

After a couple of silent minutes, Sam nodded his finish and stood up, glanced back at Castiel again with a withering look. "As much as I don't want you even near him right now, it would be more practical if you put him in the panic room, instead of me carrying him," Sam told the angel, eyes warning that if he made even the slightest different move to Dean, he would be the one on the floor.

So Cas just nodded again, and cautiously moved forward, touching two fingers to Dean's forehead. He vanished, and Sam gave the angel a cursory nod in response, then left the room, effectively dismissing Castiel as important. As in hunting, once the threat was no more, his priority now was his brother.

The angel just stood in the middle of the room, and found himself thinking how bright Sam and Dean's souls were together. And he almost wished his brothers would care for him in such a way as the two human prodigies. And thus, Castiel hung his head at his doing, shamed to his grace by none less than Sam Winchester.

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Sam sighed as he walked through the kitchen on his way downstairs, to collect the water and towel. It was all he really needed to take care of his brother, but he almost smiled at the whisky that had been placed beside it. Yeah, that would help too.

He picked up the bowl of warm water and towel in one hand, and tucked the whisky under his arm. Disinfectant, of course, the hunter way. Then he turned around to see Bobby.

"Okay, see if Cas can find out where this room is," he instructed. Bobby nodded, knowing that now Sam wasn't going to move from Dean's side until he was satisfied with his brother's condition.

"Wait," Bobby called as Sam turned to leave. Sam glanced back, questioning. "You can't seriously be thinking about taking Dean there?" Bobby asked uneasily.

Sam sighed, and turned to leave, returning over his shoulder, "I'll just talk to him."

Bobby sighed, watching the boy leave. There wasn't a damn thing in hell that could stop those boys if the other was threatened.

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**I was going to write more but you know, I might leave it there for now... If you think it's good, I'd be pleased to write a second chapter about Sam looking after Dean until he wakes up. Please review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ah, sorry this took so long, I don't really have an excuse, I've just been kinda uninspired and busy. Also I can't believe we have to wait another 2 weeks for the next episode! Damn, this is getting good. I've not really got anything to do tonight, so I'm gonna watch 5.18 and get this story finished, and then hopefully will update Hannah next. Thank you for reading as always, and enjoy and review if you get the chance :)**

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Sam sighed as he walked down to the Panic Room; the harsh metal walls all too familiar. Dean was there, as requested, on the bed attached to the wall. In unconsciousness, he looked small and vulnerable. Sam was never going to get used to seeing his brother like that, no matter how many times he did.

Setting the bowl, whiskey and towel down on the table, Sam sighed again and sat down on the chair beside it, just needing to think for a moment. He hated this room. Dean did too. It was safe, yes, but it held too many bad memories. Hallucinations mixed with real betrayals.

_"I don't believe... in you"_

Yeah, that hurt like hell. It wasn't as if Sam wasn't expecting it. He knew Dean had been having trouble trusting him since Ruby. And it made sense, of course. He had started the apocalypse. He had betrayed his brother.

But Dean had betrayed him first. To help, of course; always. He and Bobby had tricked Sam into the Panic Room to detox from the demon blood. That hadn't gone very well at all. No one had any idea how he had got out of there either. Sam least of all; he could barely remember anything when he was... 'medicated'.

And it happened again. It was Famine's fault, but Sam had given in. The look on his brother's face when he turned up, drunk on blood with power. He had asked, again, to be locked down. Dean had put him in the Panic Room almost before anything could happen. Of course, the detox was just as bad. And, according to Bobby Cas, it broke Dean. Of course it did.

And that was followed by their deaths... again.

Sam remembered telling Bobby, when he asked what really had hit Dean so hard to make him give up.

"Well, since those hunters found us and we were told in Heaven-" he had begun, only to be immediately interrupted.

"You died again?! In fact, you got killed? By _hunters_?" Bobby had been incredulous, and had every right to be. It was still a mystery how the hunters managed to sneak in on them and, yes, kill them. Again.

Sam had sighed, prepared to tell the short version of the story. "Well, yeah. They wanted to kill me for starting the apocalypse," he explained, matter of fact. Bobby had sighed and glanced away, but hadn't interrupted. "So, uh, they did. And then they shot Dean too, because they didn't really fancy him being on their ass for the rest of their life."

Bobby had realised what that meant, of course. "Hold up. They killed you first?" Sam had nodded, and Bobby's expression turned to one of understanding. "Great. Just the motivation he needed to want to sacrifice himself," he muttered, knowing exactly what a Dean Winchester having just seen his brother die was like.

Sam had nodded in agreement. Hell, he knew what he was like when he saw his brother _ripped apart _by hellhounds and die in terribly agony. Sometimes at night he has to watch Dean sleeping to reassure himself that the distant screams he could hear were from years ago, and his brother was alive and fighting next to him.

Well, he had been. But now...

He sighed again as he watched Dean sleeping even now. The angel had beaten him up and knocked him out, which figured. Cas was very powerful, more so than normal pissed off guys from bars, so Dean was going to be pretty sore and achy for a while, even more so than usual. Whether Cas would relent and help him remained to be seen.

With careful movements, Sam crouched down next to his brother and slipped off his jacket, watching Dean wince even in unconsciousness. But that was good too; a reaction to pain was helpful in situations.

Tossing the jacket on the floor by his chair as he stood up, Sam picked up the towel and dipped it in the warm water, and then poured a little whiskey onto it. Hunters' Helper, it was sometimes called. Good disinfectant for injuries, and for the mind - helps to numb the pain, as in if you drink until you are asleep. Dean and Bobby often did. Sam was afraid of addiction. He always was.

"Only you could piss off and angel so badly, Dean," Sam murmured as he knelt down next to his brother again, and gently as he could began cleaning the cuts from Cas' beating. However, said angel had also pissed off Sam, by doing this to Dean. Fortunately, Cas wasn't trying to sacrifice himself like Dean had been, and therefore had avoided a punch from Sam himself for his deeds. Narrowly.

Making sure none of the cuts were too deep, Sam dropped the towel on the table and moved on to the less obvious but definitely there injuries that came with being thrown against and at stuff and being beaten up.

Watching for pain reactions, Sam gently checked Dean's back and chest and stomach for injuries. A few deep bruises were definitely showing up, but nothing felt broken under Sam's practiced hands, and so he left that. It would hurt like hell for a couple of days, but it was all just bruises, luckily.

Sighing, Sam went back to the table and checked the draws. Sure enough, there was a pair of handcuffs waiting to be used. Probably still there from Sam's time in the room. It was almost like a symbol of _this has gone far enough, now you'll have to be locked down_.

He grimaced for what he was about to do, but he knew that he had to. They couldn't risk Dean getting out again. Also Sam didn't think he would be able to keep his temper if the angel got angry with Dean again. In fact, Cas would probably smite him himself next. No, that wouldn't go down very well.

So Sam walked back over to his brother and bent over him, carefully fastening the handcuffs over his right wrist, and then to the bed's frame. Dean was already laying on his right side, so Sam briefly pulled one leg up and put Dean's other hand next to his face on the pillow, in a kind of recovery position, so Dean was safe and comfortable.

He made sure Dean was locked down as well, and there was nothing in reaching distance to jimmy a handcuff lock. If Dean was conscious enough to try, anyway, which seemed unlikely in the close future.

Sam left his brother like that, picking up the bowl, towel and whiskey, and exited the Panic Room, closing the door. He didn't want to leave Dean right now really, but he needed some air, and they did need to make some kind of plan.

So he walked heavily up the metal stairs and into the kitchen, putting down what he was carrying by the sink, and onto the living room. Cas seemed to be trying to explain something, and Bobby was looking a cross between glaring at the angel and worrying.

They both looked up and Cas fell silent when Sam came in. The angel quickly glanced down, as if he didn't feel he had the right to look Sam in the eyes right now. Usually, the younger Winchester would have told his it was okay, but it wasn't. And Sam was actually still pissed, so it was just as well Cas wasn't going to go up against him.

"What's the plan?" Sam asked, as though they had been thinking of one. Cas glanced up and away, and Bobby shrugged. Sam resisted rolling his eyes. Family was definitely so helpful.

"I have checked the Beautiful Room," Cas informed him. "It is surrounded in and out by angels to keep anyone out." He shrugged too. "Not sure how I would get past them."

Sam looked at him. "We," he corrected. Bobby and Cas stared at him. "I'm taking Dean too."

Bobby sighed and glanced away too. Sam was beginning to get riled that no one was looking him in the eye. As if they all needed to lie to him to keep him from killing them, really. Which, Sam considered, wasn't that far from the truth.

"Sam, you can't take Dean," Cas replied, as if he was in charge there. Sam just had to give him and cold look for the angel to back off. He glanced helplessly at Bobby for help.

"Look, Sam, Dean's said yes once already, and look how that turned out," Bobby pointed out reasonably.

Sam sighed. "I know." He looked pointedly at Cas again for a second, who looked away.

"So why the hell are you gonna take him _where _he can say yes, and this time it'll be taken on instantly!"

Cas added, "I doubt I would be able to stop him if he says yes in front of the angels."

This time Sam did glare at him. "Yeah, I don't think I want you stopped Dean any more," he said warningly.

Bobby sighed at that. Yeah, there was no way Sam was letting Dean give up anywhere near Cas again. After such a display of anger on one of the Winchesters, there was no way he was going to be able to commit anything against them again anytime soon.

"Well, what's your genius plan?" Bobby asked, already knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

Sam shrugged. "Go in all or nothing," he replied simply, and walked out.

Cas and Bobby exchanged an uneasy look. The Winchester's plans never, well, went to plan, and this one may be their most foolish one yet. And it was all derived on Sam's faith in his fallen big brother.

So when Dean woke up with Sam right by his side an hour later, it didn't matter what he said. Because Sam had faith in him, and with that... screw the plan. Because the Winchesters, of all people, weren't ruled by destiny. The were ruled by themselves and their bond only. And that was enough for the world.

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**So that really didn't go to plan (unlike the Winchesters, I like plans) but hey, it's done now, even if it took me ages - I had to rewatch the same scenes a LOT to really get any inspiration. But there we go and that's that. (That's that alright). Um, hope you like. Now it's 11.30pm and I have college in the morning and I'm tired so it's watching 5.19 just because it's on and then bed. Night!**

**2nd note: Yeah I wrote this last night but by the time I finished the internet had been turned off, so I haven't had chance to publish until tonight! Sorry for the wait again but hope it's alright at least :)**


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